silviuf

My DCS:MIG-21 bis module all of a sudden cannot be deactivated anymore. Error: "Unable to deactivate the product license due to significant changes of the computer hardware configuration. Only valid licenses can be deactivated. To obtain an error report and send it to product technical support, click the corresponding button. Error report has been generated successfully. Press "View Report" to view data to be transferred. Save the report file to your hard disk to send it to the product technical support. E-mail: support@leatherneck-sim.com Web page: http://www.leatherneck-sim.com/ Important error details (already included in the report): UK: ESKA-T6MJQB-M8ZCYN-PMC3TN-UNUCB4-EPAC6P 5.91.1.3; 3231; ES: 185, 216, 98, 9D, D9, BE, C9, 95, 184, 0". As you can imagine, for sure I didn't change any hardware in my computer and I didn't change my OS. Had I done this, I would've behaved in a stupid way, ain't it? I didn't write my previous posts in this thread just for nothing, that's for sure. So, this is our great Starforce DRM which ED's guys so hastily adopted. If it is still not clear: IT FAILS. I've just lost one activation because of a stupid software error. I will open a customer support ticket, but most probably I am just wasting my time. I bought 8 modules in total; I am starting to feel sorry that I invested this much money in this game, 1-2 modules would have sufficed for such a stupid DRM system.

I do agree that the investment needs to be protected by a protection/activation system, but this Starforce is obsolete, given the advent of online services/platforms. Ok, I would not be happy with a 100% online connection like Diablo 3, but I am not happy either to be left with 1 activation/31 days for the rest of the license lifetime. I want an activation system like the one from Office 365: has anyone from ED used Office 365 so that they can see the beauty and simplicity of that system? You have 5 activations/ say 10 for DCS, you can manage them all from the online control panel; no valid license, no activation. Uninstalling or upgrading the system? One can easily deactivate all the instances. This is the activation model that should be pursued. Is it enough 1 activation in 30 days? What if your motherboard or CPU breaks down? Shall I wait 25-30 days just to play this game? Must I plan my Windows reinstall based on my DCS activation schedule? My motherboard broke down two weeks ago, no sign, all of a sudden, ASUS premium brand. So yes, bad things can happen and 1 activation/30 days means that I will have to wait 1 month until I can play the game. And, based on ED's feedback from my last ticket, I don't think they can replenish the activations manually. Pretty stupid and disrespectful towards us the customers, ain't it? Given that the system is composed of individual modules taken from individual contractors, I don't think that activating/deactivating all of them from the press of a button will be that simple. Actually I would gladly activate/deactivate all the modules in 30 minutes as long as I have some unlimited activations for 1 PC station. In my opinion it would be best to have unlimited activations for 1 PC (1 PC at a time, like a retail key, not 1 PC OEM style) and not 10 activations the other way, this would be fair and safe. Whoever has his key stolen, will lose the license; old school serial key way.

I have a post here on this page, I won't put it here, it's too big: "http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=141699&page=3". The activation counter will not change but you lose a deactivation each time you deactivate one module, out from a total of 10 deactivations down to 0, at which point you will be further unable to deactivate hence you will start to consume the activations. There are other and better activation solutions out there, this Starforce activation has to be changed.

I also had troubles deactivating the modules. Initially I lost one activation per module due to OS change. After that I opened a ticket and the support representative recommended me the following: Please use the Reg files here to deactivate your modules: http://en.wiki.eagle.ru/wiki/Problem_with_Activation_%28reg_fixes%29. Then, re-install using the module manager: http://en.wiki.eagle.ru/wiki/All_about_your_account. I didn't see the reason for this, as I explained him clearly that my issue was that I lost one activation. Anyway, I did as I was told, I cleared the registry and uninstalled the modules (Steam version). You do realize that I lost another batch of activations, don't you (2nd in a row)? So, incomplete deactivation instructions/warnings and wrong customer support instructions. I was using the Steam version: how the hell should I know that I have to manually deactivate the modules? Really, this is the first Steam game that I had problems with regarding the activations. After that I tried the protect.exe file in each module folder, just for testing purposes; and it worked. After that I installed the modules using the DCS module manager (well, I got rid of Steam). BUT, the problem here is that it seems also that the deactivations are limited: 9 remaining deactivations. As far as I remember, I received this message for all the modules, not just for MIG-21. So, am I bound to lose in the end all the activations due to limited deactivations? I am still waiting for an answer for this last question from the customer support. I really hate this protection method. ED has me messing around with my activations and searching for solutions when, instead, for my paid money, I should relax and fully enjoy this game. Really, these guys are making for us, the customers, a hard life whereas the "pirates" are enjoying this game for free and with no hassles. I truly want to buy all the future modules and to support ED (as I have until now), but this has to stop: I wont invest future money into these modules now that I know that, at one point, I can lose my activations. Yes, I have that 30 days replenishment: but what if I remain with 0 activations and I want to install the game now, in day 1-2? What shall I do until the 30th day? I still haven't received a clear answer from customer support for this matter, they kind of seem to avoid it. Rule no.1, whatever the protection system: I should be able to install/reinstall my game whenever I want. I don't want 10 activations, one will suffice, just that one to be 100% safe. And to lose my activations, this is unthinkable; yes, I make mistakes, this is why I pay money for this software. This is not military, it's still a computer game. And the hell with Starforce. ED tells me that it is impossible to replenish my activations and that, if I want to complain to someone regarding this issue, I should complain to Starforce directly. On Starforce's site, it says the following: "If you reach the activations limit for your serial number, please contact the software publisher rather than StarForce. The serial numbers and protected programs are owned by publisher. StarForce does not have the legal rights to amend either activations or deactivations." So, nobody is responsible; the activations seems to be lost somewhere in the universe. Very nice my precious. Uffff. UPDATE: This is taken from the quickstart guide: "Each game license (disk) has 10 activations and 10 deactivations. You can activate your game up to 10 times. It's important to note that deactivations are utilized to save your activations when altering your PC hardware/software. To avoid using a product Activation, you may first Deactivate your installed game, make your changes, and then Activate again. You are provided 10 Deactivations." So, basically it is like this: activate/deactivate x 10 times = 0 remaining deactivations (full 10 remaining activations - untouched). After which one starts to consume those 10 activations (because there are 0 remaining deactivations). So, ultimately, in the perfect scenario in which one doesn't lose a single (de)activation, we are still limited with 20 activations. So, ED's statement that if one carefully deactivates his license each time then he/she will be able to activate without any kind of issues in time, is a lie. In the end all of us will come to the 1 license/31 days, which is a pity: if ED wants to secure its investment, I want also to secure my money. But as far as I can see, this is kind of a consumable; I say "kind of" because if I don't change or my PC components don't break too often, I might get along with the 1 activation/31 days rule. My problem is that I do not want to abide to the 1 activation/31 days rule; period. And I don't want to hear of supporting the developers, aka, buying again the same licenses. I've just pledged 45 EUR on Star Citizen without actually having the game, this is truly supporting the developers; it's not the steep price at discussion here; buying licenses which kind of expire in the future is something else, no offense. I know that this game required a lot of hard work, but if I plan on playing this game for 10 years from now on, then this issue is really starting to raise questions for me.

Hi guys, I have two questions: 1. What does DRM activation mean in this case regarding the "3 activations" limit? Can I instal the module on maximum 3 computers at one given time or can I instal the module maximum 3 times on 1 PC for life? Logic says that it should be 3 maximum PCs simultaneously and, if I uninstall it from 1 PC, I can move that license on another PC. 2. I currently own DCS modules on Steam. Since I couldn't find this module on Steam, can I buy it from DCS' site and activate it directly upon the game in Steam/DCS folder? Or will it be released also on Steam? Thanks a lot,

thanks a lot.

Asus AMD R9 290x OC2.

I cannot OC like you, mine is non-K. At least I set Turbo Boost on a max ratio of 43. Before I had a Turbo ratio of 40. Frankly, I saw no difference between a ratio of 40 and 43 (and it is running at 4,3 GHz, although I don't know with how many cores. Maybe I have an increase of 1 fps, no more. My Huey test renders me exactly the same frame rate as before. I don't seem to run into a frequency limit here, something else is at stake.

I tried both of these mods: sky+no water reflections and land textures. They are awesome, indeed, but unfortunately they seem to affect my fps. Even though the no-reflections water mod should actually increase my fps, basically I see here a 2-3 fps decrease. I use the free flight KA-50 mission over and over again, the reading which I do seems to be consistent across all missions (something like 1 minute from the beginning of the mission). Land textures mod is the same: some really nice ground textures, I can see the difference, but again, an even bigger 4-5 fps decrease. Since I have performance issues I cannot use them unfortunately. :-(

I checked this thread and I found nothing which can help me. I've already dealt with the mirrors as I turned them off (biggest fps drain); shadows don't seem to influence too much, as I had them turned off completely and I didn't see a noticeable difference. As I previously said, what I saw that helps are Visual Range and Scenes, which I put on low. At least to be able to play it.

I understand. Another question though: does this mod (and mods in general) affect DCS as a whole (all modules, regardless of plane/map) or does it affect only a specific module/plane/map? Thanks a lot.

Mustang, I know that this is a very dumb question, but here it is: which archive must I use from your first post? Because you have two, which seem to be the same: "complete" and "no reflections high water". And what's the difference? Thanks.

UPDATE to the Huey low-fps performance issue: it seems that the engine for this module has a flaw somewhere internally, as this behavior is consistent every time I open up the last training mission for Huey. I experience very low fps from the very beginning of the mission (28 and lower) and especially when I am in the vicinity of that small "town" from the beginning of the mission. Well, the only playable state (34 fps+) which I found is by setting all settings to high (including AA, mine is 8x), TSAA on, but Water, Visual Range and Trees distance on low (trees slider on minimum). I have come to the conclusion that this game was not meant to be good-looking, only to be a simulation in a true sense and that's it (like playing Falcon 4.0 nowadays). It's such a pity.

Sorry Wader8, your post is so big that I didn't have the patience to read it. It seems that you read some things and you know how to handle them. But you were told that this game MIGHT give you erratic behavior with pagefile off, specifically because DCS' graphic engine is old, yet you do not seem to understand this. Then I don't know what this forum's seniors might help you with, this is the official explanation from ED, like it or not. As for the erratic frame rate drops, I have them too: when I look around in the airport, even though the displayed buildings are horrible ugly-looking paper "things", I still get a frame rate drop, like that building was made of high-resolution textures. I don't think there is a logical explanation for this, aside from an graphics engine flaw.

My personal opinion is that these performance issues are not related to other third party software. I have never heard of graphical corruption or in-game performance loss which come from movie players, browsers, so on so forth. First issue would be the video driver, then audio driver: beware that Creative makes the worst drivers out there; I had a Creative X-Fi which was working perfectly fine but I had to ditch it in favour of an Asus Xonar DG precisely for its bad drivers; now my Xonar audio card + drivers are working like a charm. And last but not least a fresh game reinstall might solve an issue, but not necessarily. If indeed DCS was affected by these reinstall or third party interference issues, then this means their game would be really broken. To delete my game and to reinstall it again just to solve an issue is plain stupid. But you're making me wonder whether I should try this myself (reinstall) just to check if my performance issue in DCS Huey is related to a game file corruption. EDIT: And as a question related to EDGE: will this new engine be implemented in all the previous DCS versions which we currently have now? Like SU-25T, A10-C, KA-50?? Or will it be an engine used only for the next DCS modules?

I did more tests and it is crystal clear: the reason for my horrible frame rate was the mirrors option which was toggled on. So, to all who have performance issues, TURN OFF the mirrors. Now the game is running normal in KA-50 with all settings on high except for Water, which I put on medium, AA 8x + TSAA, 200 clutter 9000 trees distance and 150000 preload radius. This is a little intriguing for me, as I thought that water would be GPU-bound, hence more relaxed, and, instead, I thought that the real issue would the the View distance, which is not. I get 45-55 fps on average, 65-40 fps on total range. I am kind of forced to use V-sync on, which further decreases the minimun fps by 3-4 at times (so 36), as I have some ugly screen tearing inside the cockpit; but in the end I think I would give up on using Vsync, regardless of the tearing, for this game is already to complex for our current hardware. Also, either this game is not influenced too much by AA + TSAA (although I see the effect) or my 64 ROPs really do their job, for I tested with Vsync off and AA 16x+TSAA, and the minimum frame rate barely decreased at 35-36 (ok, it might be even less in other scenarios). But I still get screen tearing. As for fps, I have: SU-25T runs best, A10-C also is super smooth, KA-50 follows, SU-27 FC3 is ok (less than KA-50, I don't know why, given that it is a medium-fidelity simulation, compared to high-fidelity for KA-50). As an aftermath, given the fact that I was so happy that I solved this annoying issue and given the guilt that I had by buying my previous DLCs at Steam sales :-), I purchased also UH-1H Huey. Well, here I got into real issues. The graphics here seem to be really flawed, for example, on the last training mission, I start the game in the Huey: in the cockpit, if I look on the left, I get 50-55 fps, if I look forward and on the right, I get 26-28 fps. I pass over a so-called town (you couldn't name it as such, the textures are so low that it resembles a landfill), I get 26-28 when I look and pass over it, I move further and I increase to 55, I come back and pass over it, I go forward with just barren land near and in front of me and I still get 24-28 fps. This is a real issue; I tried lowering down, one by one, the settings (scene, visual range, water, shadows), but to no avail. One time I though that by removing the CPU-bound shadows I would attain stability, I got the feeling it was a little better but in the end I had the same issues. Also, for all the other Huey missions, it seems that I have some performance issues in my cockpit, because in each mission I find myself having low fps, but only when I look in certain directions. What is wrong with this Huey module? Also, I will try the water and sky mod from Mustang, maybe I can increase a little bit my average fps.

I don't understand why you recommend this. As far as I know, threaded would imply that the software splits the workload onto multiple threads, for each CPU core/GPU SPU which ultimately translates into computation efficiency. Is this not the case with DCS? And why OFF and not auto? Or ON? Thanks.

Unbelievable. I think I got the culprit (well, partially). At first I decreased to medium Visibility Range and Water quality. Result: KA-50 free flight 30-38 fps. After that I turned off the mirrors. Come on, the fps went up to 44-62. Really? Are these mirrors taxing that much? I will keep you posted tomorrow for another results.

With regard to the 14.41 AMD driver, I installed it yesterday (previous driver: 14.9) and I didn't see a noticeable difference, maybe 1-2 frames more. I read specifically your post Mustang, thanks for the tip, unfortunately for me it doesn't work. Also, the dll "injection" method didn't work for me; as soon as I copied that dll into the bin folder, my DCS game hanged; even though that was not a 100% hang, my game couldn't properly start and I think it rendered 1 frame/minute, something like this. In the end I had to restart the Windows. As for the downclock of my R9 card, I don't know, I don't want to mess with it; it is stock and I want it to remain like this. Even though it may had worked for some, I find it hard to believe that downclocking a card may help some games (as it being a stock OC, not custom made). As I said, everything else runs flawlessly. Anyway AtaliaA1, I will check it out, thanks.

I know, now I'm just whining too much because of some stupid performance issue. It's just I invested a lot of money in my system and now I expect to play all my favorite titles without flaws, especially ancient performance issues like this one. You're right, I should just move on and give it a try and to lower a bit the settings, in order to obtain a playable and smooth frame rate. But I don't want to give up and to let ED assume that we, the customers, are ok with this condition. I know that undertaking this kind of business is as troublesome as any other: initial investment, salaries, overheads, marketing and, in the end, to obtain profit in a world where, for some, it is easier to download that from the internet because, why not, it is free. And let's not forget, for this kind of military-type software, the finance needed to access this information because I don't think that one can just find it on Wikipedia. Yes, some people just don't appreciate the hard work which these people do. Well, with this good attitude which I've just got :), I'm already thinking into buying DCS Huey, my only real concern now is that I might get into another and even worse performance issues than what I have with KA-50 or FC3.

Indeed, the sound for Su27 is outstanding. The wind which blows along my cockpit when I am up at 8000 meters, it makes me really feel like I am over there. It is really something which I have never heard before in a game.

yes, this is the official excuse come from ED. But, had they ever checked before they released this product IF the users could really run this software? I mean I find it hardly believable to develop a game and not to take into consideration that maybe half from the total number of systems use an AMD card. Plus all my DX9 games run perfectly, so again, this doesn't make sense. I do agree that a simulator doesn't have to be good looking and to have fancy images, and instead it must focus on physics, math computations in order to make it more realistic. Well, let's wait and see what that EDGE engine delivers to us.

Hi guys, this is my first post on this forum. Of course, given that I use an AMD card, as it seems to be, my first issue with this game has to be with the performance. I really disagree with the people advocating the developing team: this game is very weak performance-wise. Based on my experience with this game, I have come to the conclusion that there is an engine flaw/issue, whether this exists because it is old or just flawed, I know not. On my configuration, I run any game available today at maximum settings (almost all), and yet, with DCS KA-50, A-10C and FC3 (SU-27) I am somewhere near 30 fps (more or less depending on the given area). Really? And as some fellow said, and I checked it myself, the engine doesn't utilize more that 2 cores (1 maybe 50%, the other way less). Plus, when things start to appear on the screen (other planes, missiles) things start to get even worse. Of course, I won't bother you with the "behold the marvel named BF4 in 64 players and how good that runs", I agree that we are speaking of different budgets here; but for my money I want a game that runs well for what it does. Not 100 planes, just 2-3 but in a very good shape. I am not a bank, I won't support the developer until, somewhere in time, they may release a better version. I bought A-10C, KA-50 and FC3 and they run like crap (avg 30fps on high), so, basically, if I want to play them, I am left with the option of downgrading the Visib. Range, the only one which works, because all the other GPU-bound settings don't seem to have too much an effect. If my core i7 can't cope with this game, then I don't know what can nowadays. And I don't dig this excuse that AMD is at fault here, we are not kids here, please ED, don't give us this shit. The developer must follow the manufacturer, not the other way. Even though this game is an outstanding piece of simulation software, for the time being I will remain with my free SU-25T (which runs great, btw, avg. fps 40-50+, only take-off area near 25-30, I don't know why) and what DLCs I have now, medium settings or not. If ED manages to fix and improve this engine, then I just can't wait to buy all the other available DLCs, I really want that much to support them. Cheers.